"SOAP-BOX DERBY"
BOYS IN BILLY-CARTS AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Dec. 4 Between 7000 and 8000 people lined half a mile of road at Prospect, South Australia, to seo 125 boys contest Australia's first "Soap-box Derby." For nearly three.hours contestants ranging from eight-year-olds to veterans of 14 bumped, skidded and rattled down a hill in their billy-carts. Crash-helmeted speed demons defied all tha laws of grown-ups and laws of safety, and rocketed over the bumps in the bitumen. Twenty miles an hour was easy even to tho slowest of the speedsters. There were no serious crashes, but the huge crowd pressed so far on to tho road that they were in danger of being hit by one of the bucking soap-boxes. Amazing skill and nerve were shown by the boys in the control of their crazy conveyances. Police officers and officials of the Racing Drivers' Association, which sponsored the "Derby," were kept busy pushing the crowd back. The winner of tho contest received a bicyclo as a prize.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23218, 12 December 1938, Page 5
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170"SOAP-BOX DERBY" New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23218, 12 December 1938, Page 5
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